Rice-sized RFID chip implants that store vital medical records are nothing exceptionally new; in the summer of 2006, reports about the VeriMed system, which encodes a person’s medical records in a 16-digit code, were everywhere. The chip is implanted into the arm so that it can be scanned and easily obtained in a medical emergency.

There was some new attention to the technology this week: Good Morning America broadcast this segment, which reports on the technology being used to keep track of Alzheimer’s patients if they should wander and become disoriented.

Though I don’t know if I agree with Lance Ulanoff that the VeriChip technology is really necessary to track our teenage children (where’s the trust? or the cell phone, for that matter?), I can see the advantage of using the technology to ensure the safety of our parents and grandparents. Fundamentally, it’s the logical next step to the Alzheimer’s Association’s Safe Return Bracelets, which offer 24-hour assistance when a patient with Alzheimer’s or dementia wanders. But is it going a tad too far?

There are serious issues of privacy cropping up in my head–and the heads of privacy advocacy groups, as well–concerning what could be easily construed as LoJack for people. Things like this make me think we’re inching ever closer to a 1984/Brave New World-esque big brother is watching sort of existence, in which we’re all implanted with microchips at birth and persistently tracked in our every movement. I liked Gattaca, just not that much.